Instructions

ZOOM IN by clicking on the page. A slider will appear, allowing you to adjust your zoom level. Return to the original size by clicking on the page again.

MOVE the page around when zoomed in by dragging it.

ADJUST the zoom using the slider on the top right.

ZOOM OUT by clicking on the zoomed-in page.

SEARCH by entering text in the search field and click on "In This Issue" or "All Issues" to search the current issue or the archive of back issues
respectively.
.

PRINT by clicking on thumbnails to select pages, and then press the
print button.

SHARE this publication and page.

ROTATE PAGE allows you to turn pages 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise.Click on the page to return to the original orientation. To zoom in on a rotated page, return the page to its original orientation, zoom in, and
then rotate it again.

CONTENTS displays a table of sections with thumbnails and descriptions.

ALL PAGES displays thumbnails of every page in the issue. Click on
a page to jump.

12
hrmonline.com.au
»
OUR MOB
How can employers help to reverse employment disadvantage among the Indigenous
population? Clive Hopkins asks those who have taken on the challenge.
“TO WORK ALONGSIDE PEOPLE FROM YOUR
community, there is a connection which is sometimes hard to
describe. We support each other and make sure we look after
each other. There is a bond, a mutual respect.” Chris Heelan,
National Indigenous Manager at Australia Post is talking about
working at Australia Post, where he says he has always felt
valued – and that his cultural heritage has been accepted.
“I suspect not all people would be aware of my Aboriginality,
but that’s fine and it just allows me another opportun ity to
share who I am with colleagues and to show how proud I am to
be a Noongar from south western Australia.”
Australia Post was a finalist in the 2015 AHRI Employment
Awards in the area of Indigenous employment, and that’s
partly because “every job at Australia Post could be a job for
an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person,” says Heelan.
“We’re not about special treatment or special measures, we’re
about creating genuine opportunities for all.”
Currently, Australia Post has 661 Aboriginal and Torres
Straight Islander employees nationwide, representing
approximately two per cent of the workforce.
“Our goal is to achieve 2.5 per cent by July 2017, which
will bring the company’s Indigenous workforce close to the
percentage of Indigenous people within the wider population.
“We want our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
workforce to be representative of the community. It’s a stretch,
but we’re confident of achieving this target.”
But Australia Post is an exception rather than the rule. Like
the statistics around Indigenous health outcomes, the figures
around Indigenous employment make for sober reading.
According to the ABS in 2011, Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people aged 15-64 are more than three times as likely
to be unemployed as non-Indigenous people. It’s an imbalance
that many organisations would like to help change but aren’t
sure how to proceed.
“We k now that employers want to do targeted recruitment
strategies, but don’t want to breach racial discrimination
laws,” says Mick Gooda, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights
Commission (AHRC).
In response, the AHRC, in association with the Business
Council of Australia, last year launched free guidelines to help
employers create job opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people in accordance with the law.
For Gooda, special measu res are an important element
in what he calls “substantive equality”, which he defines as,
“treating people differently, in order to give people access to the
same opportunity”.
Some organisations have risen to the challenge. One mining
company discovered that some Aboriginal applicants were
failing a stringent fitness test for one class of jobs. Undeterred,
they encouraged the applicants to attend a fitness gym (and
paid for their membership), and when the positions were
advertised again, the same applicants passed.
“The standard stayed the same, they just found other ways to
meet it. It’s a really positive way of making sure that people had
a fair go,” says Gooda. Other mining companies have helped
non-drivers obtain their basic driver’s license in order to qualify
for driving jobs.
Chris Heelan, National Indigenous Manager, Australia Post. Photography: Damien Pleming